Sunday, December 07, 2014

Nagrand, Initial Dungeons

Nagrand

So the triumphant conclusion to the Alliance storyline was a cutscene featuring two orcs duking it out. Outstanding, Blizzard.

Aside from that Nagrand was a pretty good zone. Lots of varied quests. I'm not so sure that having several final bosses run away with "See you in Highmaul" was the best of ideas. But it does tie the first raid to the zone.

Initial Dungeons

I did Silver Proving Grounds and my first heroic dungeon. It was the Grim Depot with the railway. A clever dungeon design, really.

However, something just feels wrong with WoW's small group content. I'm not sure what it is exactly, but it hasn't felt right for a couple of expansions now.

I think it has to do with how the exact makeup of the trash doesn't matter anymore. It feels like every trash pack is the same--even if they are made up of different mobs--and is dealt with the same tactics.

Also, as a healer, it feels like I am lacking in control. Which is an odd thing to say, because healers never really controlled anything. But I can't really describe it any better than that.

Was your first heroic a success? Mine wasn't. Went to Blackrock Slag Mines and wiped about ten times on Roltall before the group distintegrated. I think the problem was DPS too low so we couldn't kill him before there was nowhere to stand that wasn't on fire, hard to be 100% sure though.

"So the triumphant conclusion to the Alliance storyline was a cutscene featuring two orcs duking it out. Outstanding, Blizzard."

Oh, and no kidding.

"I think it has to do with how the exact makeup of the trash doesn't matter anymore. It feels like every trash pack is the same--even if they are made up of different mobs--and is dealt with the same tactics."

As someone who has both healed and DPSed all Silver Challenge modes at this point, the DPS definitely have very different tactics for some trash packs. But as a healer, you basically just always heal the tank and heal DPS who take random damage.

And the lack of control, like Gevlon said, is because you can't save everyone now. Previously if they didn't get one shot you could keep them alive, not anymore.

I miss CC/single pull trash packs. Tanks are already chain pulling their way through whole rooms, which saves time but makes the whole run feel frantic and chaotic, like an old lady burning through stacks of scratch-its. The go-go-go crowd seems to be absent though, so it's not all bad.

I have a dream that one I will one day live in a world where MMO lore figures will not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their cutscenes.

Speaking as a Monk I feel like I have more control over my healing now than ever before. It's all about triage now; there can and will be situations where you have less than a second to choose who to save and who to "educate".

As a healer I was kicked from my first heroic... Tank was less geared then me, but on teamspeak with dps so I drew the short straw.

As far as lacking control, I think it can come from the change in tanking to active mitigation. So much of the tanks survival depends on their decisions and not the healers. Of course, the start of every expansion has trash wiping groups more then bosses... Wings for the win!